One with nature in Laguna

Artist Camille Przewodek paints in quick, short strokes then peers up from below her visor at the ravine high above.

“A friend of mine told me William Wendt painted here, so I wanted to come,” she says, mixing paints with her brush to match the colors in the Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park.

For more than a century, Wendt and other American impressionists have been seduced by the light, the land and the feeling that Laguna Beach was somehow different than anywhere else.

“I’m interested in preserving wilderness areas,” says Przewodek, who lives in Petaluma. “If they develop everything, there will be nothing to paint other than urban scenes.” The people of Laguna Beach understand that better than most, living as they do in an area that almost became an unbroken urban scene.

Instead, there is now a 17,000-acre greenbelt surrounding Laguna open to the public, some of it open only on weekends and by appointment. Recreational uses vary from snorkeling and diving to mountain biking, hiking, horseback riding and camping to docent-led and self-guided nature tours.

Known as the South Coast Wilderness, the area is composed of Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park, Crystal Cove State Park, Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve. In all, about 933,500 people each year visit the area.

A new book of photographs and history by Ronald H. Chilcote, “Nature’s Laguna Wilderness,” tells the story of how a grass-roots effort saved the land surrounding Laguna Beach, a city of about 24,300, from development. It is the first publication of Laguna Wilderness Press, a nonprofit endeavor he and fellow photographer Jerry Burchfield founded to increase awareness of wilderness issues. The book includes stories of artists, train robbers, hippies and, strangely enough, a hippopotamus, at various times, seeking refuge among these hills.

In the 1960s, James Dilley, a Laguna bookstore owner who had a dog and a pipe, initiated a campaign to save the land surrounding Laguna from housing development. He was a renaissance man, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School who left the ministry to earn a master’s and doctorate in medieval history.

His crusade had a typical beginning. He and his supporters went door-to-door, signed petitions, painted signs and marched. The ending, however, was not typical at all: The little guys won.

The first piece of land to be set aside was Crystal Cove, with other sections of land being designated for preservation over the years. The four key sections that now comprise the core of the Laguna Wilderness are managed individually, falling under a patchwork of jurisdictions that include city, county, state and federal entities. And efforts continue to expand the area.

Chilcote’s photos do not reflect the struggle to preserve the land; they reflect only its beauty. Having been a part of the preservation effort, he says, there is a beauty in the mere vastness of open land in contrast to what might have been. There also is the beauty one finds by hiking for miles and chancing upon it in a grove of trees or sunlight upon fallen leaves.

The greenbelt is not spectacular in the way of forests or snowcapped peaks. It is more austere, chaparral with riparian habitat along creases where seasonal streams have formed. In the area known as Big Bend, above bright mustard meadows, there are sheer cliffs, where the roots of determined oaks find their way into the soil through cracks in the rock. And, there, they hold on.

Scattered throughout the area are sycamores that change by the season, waterfalls and Orange County’s only natural lakes. In 1978, a hippo named Bubbles, on the lam for 19 days from a local wildlife park, was discovered hiding out in one of them.

“After being put to sleep by a tranquilizer dart, she fell against the hillside, causing her fetus to press against her lungs and suffocate her,” Chilcote wrote.

Bubbles worked her way into the lore and soul of Laguna -- the lake became known as Bubbles Lake.

Jerry Burchfield and Mary Fegraus, executive director of the Laguna Canyon Foundation, stare at a coyote, which stares back at them, on a trail in Laurel Canyon. The coyote seems intrigued rather than afraid.

There is other wildlife here: bobcats, gray fox, spotted skunk, mule deer, one of the few pairs of northern harriers (ground nesting hawks) in Orange County, turkey vultures and red-tailed hawks, says Trish Smith, senior project ecologist for the Nature Conservancy.

Coastal sage scrub supports a number of unique and rare species such as the gnatcatcher, red diamondback rattlesnake and a rough-looking creature called the coast horned lizard, which, long ago was captured, varnished and sold to tourists as novelties. Laurel Canyon also is the only place in the world where the plant Laguna Beach dudleya can be found, Smith says.

The canyon, part of the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, is green with vegetation such as willow-like mule fat, scrub oak and laurel sumac, its leaves shaped like taco shells to catch moisture.

Turkey vultures glide silently overhead and higher in the sky are two hawks soaring above ridges that offer ocean views. A 50-foot waterfall is dry now, but like much of the area, will come to life when rains return.

At times, the hum from the San Joaquin Toll Road spills into the canyon, and in the distances, houses of Aliso Viejo peek over a canyon rim.

To protect the balance and life of Laurel Canyon, considered by many to be one of the most beautiful areas of the greenbelt, visitors are allowed only on weekends. In order to protect the habitat, rangers greet visitors to the area, instructing them to remain on the trails. They also monitor activity throughout the park. If overuse does become a problem -- and that is a concern that many have raised -- sections of the park can be closed down temporarily until the land recovers.

On some weekends there are special guided tours, like those when the moon is full. Plans call for daily access to the area upon completion of a $2.25-million nature center scheduled to open in 2005. Roesling, Nakamura Architects Inc. of San Diego is lead architect on the project, which is being funded by the county, the Laguna Canyon Foundation and private donations.

In the early 1970s, Burchfield, now a photography professor at Cypress College, was living in a two-bedroom beachfront apartment in Laguna that he rented for $125 a month. At that time, he says, “You couldn’t find a T-shirt or anything else with ‘Laguna’ written on it.”

Times change, of course. Burchfield now lives in Irvine. The median resale price for a house in Laguna is $855,000, more than double what it was in 1997, according to figures compiled by DataQuick Information Systems.

Enclosed by the ocean on one side and greenbelt on the other, the city is nearly built out, further stimulating property values.

Some once claimed that the greenbelt is the work of Laguna elitists slamming the door shut behind them with a wilderness area that limits growth and drives up the values of their properties.

“We heard that in the early years,” says Fegraus, “but we don’t hear it anymore, because it’s benefiting every city from Newport, Irvine, Laguna Hills, Laguna Woods, Aliso Viejo and Laguna Beach. That’s too many cities to be elitist.”

She sees it, instead, as a legacy. With the exception of the Santa Monica Mountains to the north and Camp Pendleton to the south, the South Coast Wilderness is the only significant area of undeveloped coastal canyons between the Mexican border and Ventura County; it is right off busy Interstate 5, which at its widest point stretches over 26 lanes (where the 5 and 405 meet).

The final key piece of land came in 2001, when Donald Bren, chairman of the Irvine Co., the primary developer in the area, announced that 173 acres preservationists had defaulted on would be protected through a permanent conservation easement.

After years of confrontation, the greenbelt came together, and those who had picketed against Bren were applauding him.

An Irvine Co. press release said: “Today’s announcement follows a review and update of The Irvine Company’s Master Plan, which determined that open space is the best use of this land to assure the long-term quality of life for people in the community.”

Lagunans broke out the champagne, and Chilcote began piecing together the book he had started on in 1996.

To him, the land speaks of solitude: “I take my camera into the field to find peace and spiritual sustenance and to fulfill a commitment not only to preserving what is left of pristine nature but to pursuing the positive values of human existence.”

The Laguna Wilderness, Chilcote writes in the book’s introduction, “is a unique and vast area of preserved natural landscape in the heart of urbanized Southern California. Shaping of this wilderness emanates from a vision that became reality and exemplifies how people everywhere who care about their environment and nature can achieve control of precious space and hold it intact for future generations.”

The coastal fog has lifted by early afternoon. A few mountain bikers disappear behind a hill, and, every now and then, more hikers pass by. For the most part, however, Karen and John Hoffman of Costa Mesa have Crystal Cove State Park to themselves.

Karen, 55, is surviving cancer. It was just over a year ago that she finished treatment, and exercise has become an important part of her recovery. Faith and illness, she says, have taught her to seek beauty in all ways and to make the most of each day. In nature, she says, the cancer is easy to forget.

John, 66, is wearing a backpack as he tunes up for a 60-mile trek later this summer with one of his sons. It will be the first time in 12 years he has taken on such a trip, and he wants to be ready.

The land speaks differently to each person. When Dilley, the Laguna bookstore owner, died in 1980, one of those who helped carry the torch was Elisabeth Brown, president of Laguna Greenbelt Inc., the organization founded by Dilley to promote the greenbelt, and a board member of the Laguna Canyon Foundation, a nonprofit which raises money to acquire additional land for the wilderness area. It also raises money for operational costs as needed.

A biologist, Brown says she is fascinated by patterns in nature. “In nature,” she says, “nothing is random. Plants and animals are where they are for a reason.” The people of Laguna, she says, are similarly aware of where they are and why. To Brown, the land speaks of joy and order, respect and what is possible.

“I have a hypothesis,” she says. “If people can’t see beyond their house or the house next door, they don’t tend to get involved in the stuff that’s beyond what they can see. In Laguna you have a bigger perspective and people are more involved in their surroundings.”

To David Belardes, a leader in the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians, the land represents the place of his ancestors. Like the ocean, the land gave life, and life gave death. There are numerous sacred and historical sites throughout the area, he says. In order to protect them, he does not say where they are.

Belardes has been called upon to perform re-burial ceremonies for those buried in sacred sites throughout Orange County. He prays, sings, smudges with sage, hoping the ancestors can again be at peace.

Another Juaneno, Fred Estrada, is quoted in Laguna Canyon Foundation literature: “This is my native land, and to all of you who live here now, I say, ‘Let it be yours, too.’ And to all of you who have come from other places and live here now, I say, ‘Please walk softly on this land, give it some dignity and respect, for it is now yours to share with me.’ ”

To Lida Lenney, who also is writing a book about the canyon, the land is where she chanced upon a wild rose. “It was pink, and it made me catch my breath because that’s a rose I knew as a child.”

She grew up in Linden, N.J., where she would drag her wagon in search of the flowers. She would dig them up and transplant them at her home, where, despite her best efforts, they would not grow. “They had to stay in their natural environment,” she says, “or they would die.”

Death, too, is a part of nature. One of the most telling pictures in Chilcote’s book is of a bare tree, branches outstretched against the sky. The tree is a remnant of the 1993 fire that claimed 16,864 acres and more than 400 homes.

It is a photograph that tells a story about cycles of life and death and rebirth. Behind the tree another story is told, one of golden light pouring down upon open land as far as eyes can see.

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Key spots to visit

Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park

28373 Alicia Parkway, Laguna Niguel, daily 7 a.m. to sunset. Coastal canyons (4,000 acres) open for hiking, horseback riding, bicycling. Orange County Natural History Museum, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, located at park entrance (949) 831-3287. Parking, $2.

Info: (949) 923-2200

Crystal Cove State Park

8471 Pacific Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, daily 6 a.m. to sunset. Backcountry, coastal bluffs and beach. Trails for hiking, jogging, mountain biking and horseback riding. Visitors center. Many guided tour activities. National Historic District Center and tours of cottages. Wilderness campsites available (primitive camping, must hike in three miles, uphill). Parking, $5.

Info: (949) 494-3539; interpretive program, (949) 497-7647

Irvine Ranch Land Reserve

Restricted access, address given upon making reservations. Mountain biking, hiking, equestrian activities every weekend throughout year. Guided tours also available. Part of more than 50,000 acres of historic 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch set aside for open space and recreation.

Info: (714) 832-7478

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park

20101 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach, Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Coastal canyons, prominent ridgelines. Access on your own, on designated trails, from Willow Canyon and Dilley Preserve. Docent-led hiking, mountain biking and equestrian tours also available. Parking, $2.

Info: (949) 923-2235

Also

City of Irvine Open Space Preserve

Restricted access, directions given upon reservation. 2,144 acres of coastal sage scrub, oak, woodland, riparian and grassland communities. Docent-led hiking and mountain biking, family programs and children’s day camps offered; also Boomer Canyon Cattle Camp, a special event facility.

Info: (949) 724-6738

Laguna Beach Open Space and Marine Sanctuaries

Moulton Meadows Park, intersection of

Del Mar and Balboa avenues, and Alta Laguna Park, near the intersection of Alta Luna Boulevard and Ridge Drive. Daily dawn to dusk. At Moulton: tennis, basketball, soccer, playground, picnic tables. At Alta Laguna: tennis, basketball, softball, playground. Both offer trail access to Aliso and Badlands parks.

Info: (949) 497-0716

Marine Preserves

6.5 miles of Laguna Beach coastline and 3.5 miles of Crystal Cove State Park coastline are part of a marine preserve that continues south through Dana Point. Daily, 24 hours. Includes Laguna Beach Ecological Reserve, from Bird Rock to Divers Cove; and Marine Life Refuge, the remaining coastline within Laguna Beach and coastline of Crystal Cove State Park. Fish and lobster in season.

Info: (949) 494-6572

Information provided by the Laguna Canyon Foundation

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‘Nature’s Laguna Wilderness’

Author: Ronald H. Chilcote, 68

Background: Economics professor emeritus at UC Riverside, Chilcote has focused his career on research, writing and teaching about the Third World. He’s managing editor of the academic journal Latin American Perspectives and has written a dozen books on comparative political economy and development. This is his first book of photographs.

Details: 80 images as well as maps and information on the geography, geology, flora and fauna

On photography: “I feel better about being a photographer than all those other things. It brings out aspects of me that I didn’t know much about.”

Duane Noriyuki can be contacted at duane.noriyuki@latimes.com.